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Reading between the lines (as your question isn't exactly a vision of clarity!), you want the cheapest possible packaging setup. Some thoughts...

- Orca and InstEdit are free but are really tools for QAD (quick and dirty) MSI editing. Even as an experienced packager, I wouldn't want to build an MSI from scratch using either, when they are tools available to make one's life easier.

- Google for freeware MSI authoring tools. I once used MakeMSI for a project I built at home when my Wise set-up
gave up the ghost.

- If you use a host machine with lots of RAM and disk space, there's a very good argument for hosting your complete solution in VMWare Workstation virtual machines. You could set up MSDE (or whatever MS is calling the desktop flavour of SQL Server this week - Express Edition, is it?) if your solution required SQL Server (e.g. Wise Package Studio) and as many VMs as you required.

Appdeploy tool crashed on me once. But I am very happy with Winstall LE 10.5. I have installed it in a VMware. I just goto snapshot 1 (my initial stage) and then build my packages.

I use VMware and I am now using a SQL+ Wise + II6 on one and other on clients. But there are licences to be considered and I did not get a good response from the Altris Corporation. I know that there is a much better level of paid support but there are so many costs involved.

I did realise that no one has all the answers. I think I will do OK with the current setup.

Ã¢Â€ÂœCorporation: An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility.Ã¢Â€Â

I tried wininstall MSI packager pro 45 days trial. This crashed on me when making a 7zip package.

So far it is only wininstall LE 10.5 which has not crashed on me. But wininstall MSI packager pro installed its own SQL engines (it needs dotnet 2.0). It still is easier to install than the other ones because it does not ask you anything much. Just press next, next, next.

Rest I have to try. I will try rebooting and then try rebuilding the same things again and let others know